I recently sat down with my friend Rory Van Vliet to talk about the applicability of BJJ in law enforcement, including policing, corrections, security work and even bouncing. If you work in any of these fields then you should probably have a listen because there are some good war stories here! Episode 250 of The Strenuous Life Podcast in Video Form You can watch and listen to the entire … [Read more...]
On the Value of BJJ Competition with Thomas Lisboa
A fun conversation with BJJ black belt Thomas Lisboa about Why testing yourself occasionally in competition gives you things that you just can't get from regular training, How to develop your weakest positions, Why even advanced students should attend the beginner's class, How Brazilian black belts use their skills on the mat to emigrate to North America, And much more. Episode … [Read more...]
Free Audio Download of The Roadmap for BJJ
The Roadmap for BJJ book tries to help you make sense of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by breaking down the underlying 6 fundamental positions of art. It focusses the hierarchy of BJJ positions (i.e. which positions are better than others) and then breaks down the relationships and transitions between the positions. If you're new to the art then you should come away with a new understanding of what's … [Read more...]
How To Do The Crab Ride in BJJ and No Gi Grappling
The Crab Ride is one of the hottest new positions in BJJ used by competitors like Rafa Mendes, Gianni Grippo, the Miyao brothers, Mikey Musumeci and more. It looks kind of like you're doing the butterfly guard on the back of your opponent's legs with your insteps behind his knees... except that you're upside down while doing it! The cool thing is that from that strange position there are a … [Read more...]
How to Escape Cross Side Mount
Getting crushed on the bottom of the cross-side mount is one of the most terrible feelings in jiu-jitsu. In the worst case situation his weight is heavy upon your chest making it hard to breathe. Your limbs are completely out of position making it impossible for you to frame or push him away. And his arm is anchored under your head allowing him to drive his shoulder into your jaw with a … [Read more...]
How to Set Traps for Your Opponent in BJJ
Today I want to talk about setting traps for your opponent in BJJ. The idea is that you force your opponent into a position or a situation where he only has a limited number of possible responses. Because you already have a pretty good idea of what he's going to do as soon as he uses one of those responses you spring your trap and go to the next pre-programmed move. This concept allows you … [Read more...]
Don’t Concede the Guard!
I used to make a very specific mistake all up until about purple belt: I would just concede the guard. Conceding the Guard By that I mean that in a competitive roll I would just give my opponent whatever kind of guard he wanted and then go from there. If he wanted to play spider guard, sure, I’d give him spider guard and then try to pass. If he wanted de la Riva I’d give that to him right … [Read more...]
The Mental Side of Jiu-Jitsu with Tarsis Humphreys
Tarsis Humphreys is a multiple time BJJ Black Belt world champion and Brazilian National Champion. From 1998 to 2010 he won a medal in whichever Black Belt adult division he entered. In this episode we go DEEP into the mental game of BJJ, including How to keep a match on your preferred terms, The optimal state of mental arousal for a match, Tailoring a strategy to overcome certain … [Read more...]
A Three Step Open Guard Strategy
Are you flailing around in your guard, trying to react to your opponent, without a clear plan of what to do? If so then this video and podcast episode is for you! When you're using the open guard there's a definite series of steps and strategies you should be using. Here Rob Biernacki of No Gi de la Riva Formula fame, taking you through the 3 stages of open guard and shows you specific … [Read more...]
The ‘Soft One, Hard Two’ BJJ Gripfighting Strategy
Have you ever heard the story about the old bull and the young bull, standing at the top of a hill, watching some cows? The young bull turns to the older bull and says, "Hey, let's run down there and each make sweet, sweet love to one of those cows!" The older bull retorts, "Why don't we just walk down there, nice and slow, and make sweet, sweet love to ALL the cows?" The original … [Read more...]
10 Pieces of Advice for BJJ White Belts
A Guest Article, by Rhett Burch There are many articles for BJJ beginners, but not many of them are written by a purple belt. I figured I'd share my thoughts since it wasn't long ago when I was white belt. The following things have helped me tremendously as a beginner. 1) Relax And Breathe First, is relax. Almost every BJJ beginner moves like a terrified animal initially. Practicing … [Read more...]
Podcast Episode 48 – Self Defense, The Filipino Martial Arts and an Interview with Jarlo Ilano
In this interview, I talk with with Filipino Martial Arts instructor Jarlo Ilano about sparring with sticks and knives, self defense and how the training methods you're using affect how your martial art will express itself when you're trying to use it under stress. Jarlo Ilano is an instructor under Burton Richardson https://jkdunlimited.com/ in his Battlefield Kali system and a purple belt in … [Read more...]
12 BJJ Black Belts Give Their Best Tips for Starting BJJ {Video and Podcast}
Today you're going to get 12 BJJ black belts give their best tips, strategies and advice for people just starting out in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. White belts looking for help getting started and organising their training will really benefit from watching this. Although there are a few themes the fascinating thing is how diverse the advice is. There is no one path, no one BJJ tip to rule them all, … [Read more...]
How to Coach at BJJ Tournaments
by Jeff Meszaros I’ve played all the big roles at Brazilian jiu jitsu tournaments: The stressed-out competitor sweating in the bullpen, the furiously screaming coach who is in obvious need of anger management counselling and the referee who seems to be daydreaming rather than watching the match. I’ve done it all, and quite badly. I’m just kidding, of course. I actually was never stressed-out … [Read more...]
Countergripping – What to Do if You Can’t Break Your Opponent’s Grips.
We all know how important it is to break grips when you're in someones guard, right? For example, if someone has a deep grip on your lapel from the closed guard he can use it to break your posture, prevent your pass, and set up sweeps and submissions. So your first priority is to break or at least nullify that lapel grip (here are some ways to do that). But it's not just the lapel grip that … [Read more...]
Jiu-Jitsu for the Zombie Apocalypse
As we get closer and closer to Halloween it's important to shift your priorities from training jiu-jitsu to surviving the impending zombie apocalypse. (After all, it's tough to train jiu-jitsu when you're dead. Or undead, as the case may be.) That's why you've got to check out the most important video I've ever put onto Youtube: Jiu-Jitsu for the Zombie Apocalypse. A lot of people will … [Read more...]
Weak Side Rear Mount – The Ultimate Free Guide
In the Rear Mount you can end up on either the ‘strong side’ (your overhook side) or on the ‘weak side’ (your underhook side) (In fact here's a link to an article on Grapplearts.com about the strong side vs weak side debate) Ultimately though, the bottom line is that you can’t always be in charge of where you end up; your opponent gets a vote too! So sometimes you’re going to end up on the … [Read more...]
de la Riva guard Basic Grips
The de la Riva guard is a super-powerful position in modern jiu-jitsu, and many competitors use it as their primary open guard option, especially when they need to control a standing opponent. But this position is very grip dependent. Different grips open up different attacks. Want to dump him on his face with the ball and chain sweep? Better get your hands on that far sleeve! Want to … [Read more...]
How to Throw Defensive, Stiff-Arming, Bent-Over Opponents
A reader writes... Question: Hi Stephan, I'm looking for a way to incorporate some of judo take-downs into my BJJ game, but I'm having a lot of difficulty finding throws that work with the low center of gravity that is so central to the jiu-jitsu defence against throws. The defensive bent-over posture makes it nearly impossible to get good access to their hips, or even their legs while … [Read more...]
Your Open Guard Options vs. Standing Opponents
If you end up on the bottom with your opponent standing up and detached from you then be prepared for a very frantic and dangerous scramble. Unhindered by your grips and hooks he can deploy his favourite Open Guard passes on you without having to feel endangered by your own attacks. Now of course one option is to use the separation and stand back up to your own feet using the technical … [Read more...]